Real life stories of a Drama Director: Christiana Ebohon

Christiana is an award-winning director behind many hours of original long running drama series including Doctors, Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Emmerdale.

Christiana’s unique directing talent was first noticed when, as a student, she directed ST Clare in 1997, as part of a training exercise. “We were in a group and they were looking for a director. I just put my hand up and did it – recalls Christiana – Surprisingly, it went to festivals and won awards. As a result, I went to Cannes and it opened a lot of doors for me”.

She has since written and directed several prize-winning shorts, including In Your Eye, which has won a Kodak Award in the US in 1998. The following year, in Cannes, Kodak named me one of their emerging filmmakers.

Her long list of achievements includes also directing two single dramas for television: Single Voices for Carlton Television, awarded Best Actor at the EMMAS 2001 and Dogma TV: Alistair Meek Gets a Result for Channel 4. Christiana also was behind a 2010 BBC Radio 4 drama called Ob’owa, a story based on her first childhood visit to Nigeria.

She is a confident director keen to work on more high-end, challenging drama, as well as feature films. “Now that I’ve made a vast amount of TV drama, I have loads of experience. As a director who has worked with hundreds of actors, I can make decisions really quickly”.

Despite Christiana’s wealth of experience, she is always keen to learn more and signed up as a mentee on last year’s Women in Film & Television mentoring scheme.

Christiana grew up in South London and is passionate about authenticity on the screen. “It is who I am that I think that breathes through what I do, where I come from as a black Londoner, the experiences that I’ve had, the people I have met, that all informs the work that you do – explains Christiana – And also things from my ethnic background, I know what rings true and what feels false. Sometimes when I see things on TV, I think… uh, that’s not quite right”.